


The second time around

by Rimeko



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Cure, Everyone Lives Ending, F/M, Happy Ending, I just didn't want to tag them all as characters since they only appear briefly, I just wanted a truly happy ending okay, I ship Mike and Sam, Josh Lives, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Swearing, Trauma, Wendigo, Wendigo Josh, Wendigo Josh Washington, but you could read that as platonical too, daring duo - Freeform, might have made that a little bit more angsty than not though, of course I was gonna include wolfie, the whole team is here - Freeform, wendigo cure, wolfie - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2020-05-20 09:22:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 15,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19373845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rimeko/pseuds/Rimeko
Summary: Two weeks after that dreadful night, they discovered what happened to Josh. Not a day before, Mike and Sam had found on an obscure website a way to allegedly "cure" wendigos and make them revert to their human selves.From there, it was only a matter of days before the Daring Duo set foot again on that cursed mountain, searching for their friend...





	1. Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My second attempt at a multi-chaptered fanfic ever, but I have played the game very recently (yes I know, I'm late to the party !) and, what can I say, the story and characters got me caught up way too fast :P  
> Enjoy !  
>   
> EDIT (April 2020) : I just updated all the chapters to correct some mistakes and add some minor dialogue lines after re-playing for the fifth time xD  
>   
> Trigger Warning : include swearing, violence and mentions of mental health issues, but no more than in the the game (save maybe for one particular chapter but I will put a TW before if needed)

"This is a bad idea." 

"You already said that like…" Sam made a show of counting on her fingers. "… twice since we got in the car ?" 

Mike hummed, not taking his eyes off the road. She shifted in her seat to get a better look at his face, ignoring the seatbelt biting at the exposed skin on her neck. 

"If nothing else, that can’t be worse than the last time", she pointed out. "We know what awaits us." 

She glanced at their equipment piled up on the back seats and noticed Mike did the same through the rearview mirror. 

"Yeah," he said. "That’s actually what makes all this straight-up crazy." 

"The question is, are we even sane anymore ?" 

It earned her a chuckle, at least, then the silence crept back in. 

Outside of their car were tall, dark pine trees covered in snow, the only splash of color being the yellow markings on the road – a landscape already similar to the Canadian one. It was awfully quiet, if not for the wind and the engine roars, and they hadn’t seen other travelers for hours now. They were alone, and that was only the beginning of their journey. 

"I’m scared," admitted Mike after several minutes. 

Sam’s eyes darted back to her friend. She couldn’t help but be a little surprised. Honesty wasn’t really his strong point, especially when it came to his image, and he always appeared so confident, easy-going, with his little smirk that drove most girls crazy. Or "had appeared", maybe. 

That night changed them all. 

"I know," she replied softly. "I am too." 

He glanced at her, then focused on the road again, so she kept looking at him. There were shallow scars on his cheeks, and the deeper one at the corner of his mouth, still bright pink, and the ones on his neck, currently hidden by his coat collar. And she didn’t even want to think about his missing fingers. That must have hurt like hell. 

Sam's phone started ringing, breaking down the silence into more manageable pieces, and she started digging in the bag between her legs for it. 

"Ah, here it is !" 

The contact name was displayed on the screen : Ashley. She frowned a bit, half-expecting to be told-off, but she brought the device to her ear nonetheless. 

"Hey, Ash." 

"Hey. You're not home ?" 

She held back a sigh. 

"No, I'm already gone, as I said I would. Why ?" 

"Oh, uh... nothing important. I was just passing by, hoped I could catch you before you left." 

Sam hummed, not knowing what to add. 

"I..." Ash trailed off. "I just wanted to wish you good luck, nothing else. Chris too, we, we spoke yesterday. He's... you know, okay with your... plan ?" 

"Oh, okay, thanks. It's appreciated, truly." 

Her smile reflected in her tone. She was honestly relieved to know that at least some of their friends approved of their decision. It made the whole ordeal look a bit less crazy, right ? 

"Is... is Mike with you ?" 

"Yes. He's driving." 

He shot her a curious glance but remained quiet. 

"Could you... uh… " Ashley hesitated. "Could you tell him I'm sorry ?" 

"For what ?" 

"He'll know." She paused. "I met with him a few days ago, and... I have said awful things, I, I don't know what got through me, I regret it so much, I-"

She had started sniffing at the other end of the line. 

"Sam, what if that's my, my last words to..." 

"Wow, calm down Ash ! Nobody is gonna die !" 

_That_ triggered a slightly concerned look from Mike. 

"Yeah..." 

Ashley sniffled a bit more, sounding less than convinced. Sam had to admit she wasn't either, but she wasn't thinking about that right now, no thank you. 

"Just tell him I'm really sorry, okay ? I gotta go now, my mom is waiting for me." 

"I will. Have a good day, Ash." 

"You too. And... please, _please_ be careful." 

The call ended on that. She let her arm fall back on her thighs, phone still in hand. It was slightly warming her scarred fingers. 

"What did she say ?" Mike asked after a few minutes.

"She wished us good luck. And she also wants to apologize to you... She said you'll know why."

Hurt quickly flashed on his face before he regained his composure. 

"Um. I do." 

Sam waited until it became obvious he wasn't going to add anything on his own. 

"Would it be rude if I enquired further... ?" 

He gripped the wheel a bit tighter, his knuckles whitening. 

"Ash was really concerned", he explained, "especially about you. I guess she kinda assumed it was my idea and I had enrolled you against your better judgment." 

"As if I couldn't be stupid on my own..." 

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips, just beside the scar, then faded away. 

"I told her I wasn't going to let anything happened to you," he continued, "and she asked... she asked if I was gonna protect you like I "protected" Emily and Jess – air-quotes included –, then she mentioned the twins, and-" 

His voice broke off and Sam was left to stare, wide-eyed. That wasn't like Ashley at all, being this mean, sweet and shy little Ash would never said that, would never _have said_ that… Again, they weren't the same anymore. 

When Mike moved to shift gear, she motioned to put her hand on his in a supportive gesture, but as soon as their skins brushed he take his away. She bit her lip. 

"Sorry," she said. 

"Nothing personal, Sam, it’s just that…"

_It’s just that your girlfriend nearly died not a month ago, that maybe she isn't even your girlfriend anymore because she can't bear to have you touching her, not after what happened last time you did, and that was inappropriate, and…_

"It’s just that the road is slippery and I don’t have a good enough grip on the wheel with three fingers." 

_Ah._

"Do you want me to drive ?" She asked after an awkward pause. "You have been at it for hours now." 

"Nah, it’s fine. Besides, we’re almost there." 

Sam shrugged and moved to face the road again with a sigh. Her heart was hammering in her chest, to the point where she wondered if Mike was able to hear it. She had lied to him earlier ; she wasn’t scared. She was freaking terrified. 

After all, it was all-natural, since they were going _back_. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think ? I'd love to hear your thoughs in the comments ! Or really, only leaving a kudos will truly brighten my day too :D  
> Next chapter is gonna be a little flashback about how those two idiots had gotten themselves into this, I should post it around next week, so stay tuned !  
> (Btw, sorry if there are any gramatical mistakes, English isn't my first language...)


	2. Decision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it took longer than I thought it will to put this chapter together - but it is finally here, so enjoy !

_Two weeks before_

  


His computer screen painted his room in blue-ish areas and harsh shadows. The sun had set down hours ago and Mike knew he should get up to switch on the main lights, but he couldn't be bothered to get up. Not when he was laying down in the only position that his cracked ribs didn't resent too much. Or perhaps not when the switch was all too familiar to the one in the lodge, because a part of him couldn't help but fear it would blow up too. 

He grunted and shook his head, as if it would get that thought out. His gaze went back to his computer. Out of boredom, he opened his mailbox, though it was usually empty during college breaks – but not today. The first one was from Sam, answering with a "Do you think it works ?" to a website link he had sent to her a few days ago that was about an alleged cure for wendigos. The second one was from Alberta police station. He felt his heart leap down in his chest as he opened it. 

The first words he read were "mines", "Joshua" and then "wendigo". It could mean they had found Josh, or his body ; it could mean they would finally believe them, or that they haven't seen a single trace of the monsters. His vision had become too blurry for him to make out the rest of the email. Mike didn't know if it was from tiredness or tears or shock. Or a bit of the three. 

After the longest time, his phone buzzed, shaking him out of his haze. He still hadn't read the email, yet decided to look at the smaller device first. It was their group conversation, he was just able to pick up a few words in capitals letters before the notification disappeared. His blood is pounding in his ears. 

"Cochise : HAVE YOU RECEIVED IT TOO"

"Californian-bitch : Yes, stop screaming"

Em still hadn't noticed the new nickname she had earned from her fight with Jess back there in the lodge. It seemed so foreign, that time when the only things he feared was not getting laid that night and his ex's reaction to a stupid nickname in an online group chat. 

"Rock-climber : They sent it to all of us, it's written." 

He smiled weakly. Sam had the best control over her nerves out of all of them since that night, he had to admit it. 

Until the darkest hours of the night, he watched the conversation unfold without saying a word. Em left the chat after arguing with Chris about how she couldn't care less about "this psycho's fate". Matt was weakly trying to defend his girlfriend, which was apparently right next to him since he started randomly yelling at Chris again with words that weren't his. Jess hadn't even showed up – that wasn't a surprise since she seemed to avoid everything that could remind her of the events of the lodge, including all of them. Ashley was probably crying, given her emotional texts full of spelling mistakes. She said it was all their fault. Sam was trying to calm everyone down, as always, because she was the only one that could think straight when faced with such news. 

From what he could decipher, the search party found half-eaten corpses in the mines and the burnt remains in the lodge were at last formerly identified as "non-humans", which meant they wouldn't be labeled as "crazy, traumatized teens" anymore. That was good news. However, the second part caused all of the group to freak out : Josh was alive, and he was turning into a wendigo. 

Mike still hadn't read the email. 

  


*

  


Exactly two days later, he had finally discovered this information with his own two eyes, yet it didn't seem any more real. What was definitely real, though, was the very agitated Sam standing in the middle of his living room. 

"… What ?" He asked in disbelief. "Could you repeat that, please ?" 

She sighed, placed her hands on her hips in a very Sam-like way. 

"You heard me well, Michael Munroe." 

"I sincerely doubt that." 

"Fine. I said : 'what if we go back to rescue Josh' ?" 

"Yeah, why wouldn't we 'go back' to that godforsaken mountain where we nearly died once, to find our friend that had a lot of fun as a psycho that same fucking night and that is now a fucking cannibalistic monster to try to… what ? cure him ?" 

She made a face. 

"First, that was a lot of swear words. Second… that did sound kinda crazy when you put it like that."

"Just 'kinda' ?" 

"Whatever." 

She stopped to cough – last remains of the cold they had been exposed to back then on the mountain. 

"And thirdly," she went one, "what was that about the 'psycho' part ? I thought you didn't resent him anymore after you learned that Jess was alive and that anyway he had no responsibility in… that part of the mess we lived through." 

"I-"

"Besides, you weren't even there, it's not like he had done anything to y-"

"I know that Sam ! And while I'm pretty sure he had some messed up stuff somewhere in his plans for us, he…"

"He what ?" She interrupted harshly.

_He would have been right to do so._

Hannah's face was all over his mind, her eyes glistening with excitement behind her glasses, before widening in shock and horror as the others got out from their hiding places. He had known it wasn't a good idea, of course, he wasn't that stupid, but he only had realized how wrong it had been when he had seen that look on his friend's face. He liked Hannah, he genuinely did. What made it worse was that he never saw any hatred towards him in her gaze, even when she had turned into that monster and she could have killed him, both in the water and in the lodge. He should have realized that she loved him.

 _I deserve it._ The words swam round in his head restlessly, keeping him from sleeping most nights, yet they couldn't escape his lips. 

"Why me, Sam ?" He asked instead. 

"What ?" 

She couldn't help but ask, even if she knew damn well what he was talking about. 

"Why are you asking that to me in particular ?" 

"I mentioned the idea with Chris before. I thought he would agree since he was so close to Josh, but… He's scared." She shrugged. "I don't blame him." 

"You didn't answer my question." 

She finally met his eyes. 

"Because," she began, "because you ran after Jess, you followed the man who you thought to be a murderer, you befriended a wolf, you tried to make sense to that mess you saw in the sanatorium. Because you went back to the mines for the key to 'get us all the hell out of there', because you came up with that crazy, hopeless plan back there in the lodge. You very likely save my life." 

She paused to take a breath. He was speechless. 

"I'd be glad to have you by my sides", she concluded, "because I trust you to do what's right." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're still on board ! Please do not hesitate to leave kudos and comments, that really keeps me going :D  
> Chapter 3 is almost written already, so I should post it soon. Mike and Sam will finally arrive on the mountain...


	3. Up again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad you're still on board ;)

Sam checked her watch for at least the twentieth time since they had gone out of the hotel room they got not far from the mountain. They left it at ten a.m, and it was barely a fifteen-minutes drive to get to the cable station, so-

"Sam. It's not gonna be dark in a couple of seconds, ya know." 

"I'm being cautious, that's all." 

"It's not even midday !" 

She huffed in annoyance and set up to look through the dirty window. She knew that Mike was right, of course, but the knot that had tied itself in her stomach wasn't open to any rational thinking, and with each passing second it threatened a bit more to climb to her throat and choke her. She suddenly realized with wasn't just looking at the snowy forest below – her eyes were almost frantically searching for footprints, bony limbs and hellish creatures. She rubbed at her face as if it could make the paranoia go away. 

"You okay ?" 

"Yes," she lied. 

Her hands tightened themselves around the shoulder straps of the flamethrower-turned-into-a-sleeping-gas-thrower she carried on her back. Mike still had an untouched one. It had been hard to find some, because obviously that wasn't something you could get in any other store, although she had learned that there weren't, in fact, any federal restrictions about owning a thing that could spit enough scorching-hot fire to put a dragon to shame... and burn otherwise-immortal monsters, in their case.

"We'll be safe as long as we're outside," Mike said. "The Stranger's journal was clear about that : those fuckers don't see shit during the day and it hurts them." 

Sam nodded. They both knew that, but hearing it out loud did reassure her. 

"And besides," she added, "we aren't even sure there are still wendigos up there, after all." 

Yeah, there were the two Mike had burned in the sanatorium, the one she'd beheaded to save him, the four ones in the lodge when they'd blew it up... Plus the six wendigos the Stranger claimed to have killed in his journal, that accounted to thirteen, right ? The twelve surviving minors and Hannah. Add to those data that the police had closed the area, and the mountain should be wendigo-free... except for the one they had come to save. Her stomach churns painfully at that thought. 

The cable car came to a stop with a loud bang and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Next to her, Mike gasped. They were definitely both on edge. And the station wasn't exactly reassuring : there were still black and yellow "do not cross" ribbons, flapping in the wind, as well as the red paint – at least Sam hoped it was paint. "Die, die, die". Not the kind of encouraging words she was willing to come across right now. It sounded a bit too much like a premonition to her tastes. 

"Come on, let's get out of there." 

Mike's fingers brushed against her arm, setting her in motion again. She followed her friend outside, only to be greeted by an icy breath of wind. She huffed and brought her scarf up to her nose. 

"Oh jeez, it's freezing !" 

"What are you complaining about ?" He teased her. "We got coats this time." 

"Fair enough." 

They were leaving heavy footsteps in the snow behind them and Sam had to repress the urge to wipe them out so that nothing could track them down. 

"So as long as you're not tempted to take a bath in the nearest body of water, you should be okay," Mike continued after a few minutes of silence. 

"I was trying to be quick, okay ! Besides, you already got us both wet that night, so I should blame you in fact." 

"If you said so..." 

She shoved him lightly and he let out a laugh. She was glad to be talking, it helped her to stay calm.

The rest of the walk up to the lodge was uneventful – except for that time when Sam slipped and ended up with her foot right into a little stream of water, much to Mike's delight. She was gonna hear about it forever now. They quieted down when they reached the lodge, though. It was weird to see the burnt remains of that place they had so many memories attached to, both great and horrible ones. It felt unreal, even if they were the ones who burnt it, even if they had felt the heat of the explosion on their skin while it made their ears ring. 

It was the first place they had planned to check on, because maybe Josh would have felt like it was safe – at least safer than the woods and the bloody mines where his sisters died, even if it could be argued that Hannah lost her life right here, by the hand of her best friend flipping the switch. Sam bit her lower lip. She couldn't bear to think about that monster as the dark-haired young girl she knew and loved. 

The lodge was empty, from the first floor to the basement. They had only stopped at the door that led to the tunnels, leaving them for later and with a bit of luck they wouldn't even have to set foot down there. _Fingers crossed._ Sam herself didn't saw any wendigo in those bowels, but the haunted eyes on those you did was enough to deter her from ever sticking her nose in that hellhole if she could avoid it – not to mention the corpses they walked on when they were searching for Josh, a month ago. 

_Maybe history will repeat itself…_

That thought made her shiver and she rather focused on the plan they had agreed on. Next were the cabin they had tied Josh in after the prank's reveal, then the one he had sent Jess and Mike into, because to Josh they too would perhaps seem familiar and therefore reassuring. After, and after only, they would head down the sanatorium and the mines, the places they thought to be the more dangerous, in case there were still wild fully-transformed wendigos on the mountain. 

Mike's arm against her chest made her stop dead in her tracks. Her head jerked up as her hands searched for the flamethrower. Bile rose in her throat. 

"Where ?" She whispered. 

That was the first question that came to her mind, instead of "what" – there wasn't a lot of things that could put such a look on her friend's face…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger :D I'll update soon, I promise !!


	4. Encounter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't make you wait for too long, did I ? ^^

Mike squinted as if that would help him see through the bushes in front of them. He had seen something move behind it, he was adamant about it, and it was too big to be a bird or a squirrel, and too pale to be an elk or some similar forest beast. Memories flashed in his mind – bloodless skin stretched over bones, emaciated bodies crawling on the walls like spiders, milky eyes _searching_ for every motion, looking for any living being to tore apart… He was forced to close his eyes for a few seconds to clear his head, focus on the moment, on the weight on the flamethrower, the reality of the cold metal in his hands. 

He heard Sam’s breathing next to him in shallow gasps, and he wanted to tell her to calm down, to try and reassure her, but he didn’t dare to move even his lips. And how did could you tell someone that everything would be okay when darkness was creeping at the edges of your vision and when your heartbeat was so damn _loud_ that you wonder how the creature, whatever it was, hadn’t picked it up yet ? 

His eyes caught movement again, a bit further on their left this time, as if it was circling them up. His instincts were screaming for him to move, while the rational part of his mind forced him to stay perfectly still – wendigos can only pick up movement – and anyway his body felt like he had been turned into stone, limbs frozen by ice-cold fear. 

The _thing_ finally came out in the open and he barely had the time to raise the flamethrower nozzle before a wave of relief crashed over him. He let go of his weapon, his fingers suddenly numb. 

"Hey, Buddy !" 

Sam eyed him sideways, still on guard, but she was already visibly relaxing. 

"It's okay," he reassured her. "He's not gonna harm us." 

The wolf had stopped a few feet away from them, looking in expectation at the two humans, his tail waving happily in a very dog-like manner. Mike crouched a bit and held out his hand. 

"Come on, Buddy, come say hello." 

It approached, sniffed his hand for a bit then in a second its large pink tongue came out and licked the offered skin. 

"Ew, gross ! Please don't." He wiped out his palm against his pants, then patted the wolf's head. "I'm glad you're still around." 

Sam stood there, watching the pair with a smile playing at her lips. She was visibly tempted to pet it too, but for now, she settled for caution, not wanting to get her hand accidentally bitten off. 

"So you weren't lying," she said. 

Mike shot her a glance : 

"You thought I was ? I could take offense, ya know." 

"Well, it's not like you aren't the bragging kind…"

He shook his head and stood up again, readjusted the straps of the flamethrower. 

"Want to follow us, Buddy ? And if you do, I'll bring you some food tomorrow." 

The wolf tilted its head, ears pointing forward, as if it was considering the offer. When the two humans began to move, it did likewise, trailing in their footsteps. 

"Good boy." 

During the walk through the woods, Mike turned around multiple times to see if his four-legged friend was still around. He felt safer around the wolf, trusting its heightened senses to prevent any danger coming their way. It was of good use along that trail – the one he chased the wendigo dragging Jess off –, where every rustling and every moving shadow on the snow made him nervous. Sam was instinctively coming closer to him, their arms brushing every other step. 

Eventually, the cabin came into view, with its old darkened wooden plank and its dusty window. In front of the door were shreds of broken glass, and snowflakes had come through the gap, covering the floor inside. It looked it had been abandoned for years. 

"I can go alone if you want…", Sam offered. 

"No way in hell. I'm coming with you." 

She shrugged and opened the door. The glass was crushing under her heavy boots as she entered the cabin. They were quick to explore it – after all, it was only a few small rooms with little furniture, not a lot of hiding places in there. Except…

"What is it, Buddy ?" 

Just outside the cabin, the wolf was sniffing at a particular spot on the floor, lightly scratching at it.

"You have smelled something ?" 

It didn't seem alarmed, just curious, so hopefully, there wasn't anything dreadful under them. Mike came closer, shoved the wolf lightly aside so he could push the snow away. 

"There is a trap door…"

"Maybe a kind of basement ?" 

"You open it, I'm ready to fire." 

Sam nodded diligently, crouched down and grabbed the handle as he put himself in position, the nozzle of his flamethrower pointed to the trap door. 

Only a puff of dust came out, making Buddy sneeze. The basement, revealed by Mike's flashlight, was only two or so square-meters large, and mostly occupied by various pipes, a chair and a table, the latter being topped by a monitor screen. It must have originally served as an access to electricity- and water-meters, however, it seemed to have been transformed into a psycho's hideout very recently. 

"Looks like Josh did was planning some shit for us…" 

Morbid curiosity made him pay closer attention to the mess spread out on the table. There were zip ties, some map of the pipelines, with a big red cross on the one leading to the bathtub and blue lines on other smaller ones, a remote controller that was meant to activate god knows what, and in the corner were lying to metallic cylinders, one labelled "gas" and the other "pig blood".

"Mike ? Hey, Mike !" 

Sam's voice made him snap back to reality. Only then did he noticed how loud his heart was beating, how fast he was breathing. Hands came into his field of vision, slowly closing the trap door back. 

"No need to dwell on that." She put a hand on his shoulder. "We should head down now. We have seen enough." 

The sun was sitting just above the top of the pine trees – it was still rather early in the afternoon, but the days were short in the winter up north. Mike allowed his friend to help him back on his feet, then they left the cabin behind them, not looking back even once. 

"Buddy left."

He looked around, searching for the pale wolf, only to admit she was right. 

"He probably doesn't like the cable," he said with a shrug. 

"At least, she we won't have to explain to the hotel lady where we got a wolf and how he's not going to hurt her as she gasps in fear and readies herself to call the cops..." 

He let out a quiet laugh. 

"Yeah. I can picture the scene." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No way I was writing a fic about Until Dawn without including Buddy, I just love it (him ?) (I'm never sure about how to use pronouns for animals lol) ! I was so sad when I accidently made him die on my third playthrough :(  
> Thanks for sticking around, it's appreciated ! And you know what I value even more ? Reviews ! :D


	5. Nighttime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> /!\TW : mentions of child abuse/!\

The first thing she saw was the gigantic astronomical globe hanging from the Washington’s lodge living room slowly balancing, its chain squeaking in the silent night. Then her gaze went a little bit up and her heart stopped beating. 

_It_ was already there. 

She picked up Mike’s voice on her right, but her blood was beating way too loud in her ears for her to heard anything. So she just stayed there, as still as she could, her eyes locked on her fate. 

The rest was a blur. She remembered shoutings, her friends’ cries of agony, the creatures’ inhuman screeches, and black, black, black, the darkness in the mines, outside, inside, the inky darkness of that endless night that stretched out, hour after hour, so slowly that it seemed like dawn would never come – the taste of bile and blood, pain, the icy cold that was turning her body into lifeless stone – milky eyes gazing into hers, the butterfly, stretched out on bloodless skin, she thought she would never see it again, she had hoped she would, but not like that, no, not like that. 

The creature that was once Hannah drove her arm straight through her stomach and Sam woke up screaming. 

For a few agonizing seconds, all she saw was darkness despite her wide-open eyes, all she heard was deathly silence if not for her blood rushing in her veins and her short, shallow gasps as she was struggling for air, thinking she was still there, up there, down there, face to face with the monster that almost killed them all. Phantom pain was lingering in her chest. 

Then the light came up, her vision turned bright white and she had to close her eyes. She pushed the covers away, stumbled out of her bed, scared and disoriented, following the trail of a familiar voice. Warm hands caught her wrists and brought her closer, upon the other bed, and legs came resting to each side of her shaking body as he pulled her into a hug. 

When she finally straightened up, an eternity later, she realized she had been crying. 

"Back with us, Sammy ?" 

She nodded, wiped out the last tears on her cheeks with the back of her hand. 

"Did I wake you up ?" She said in a voice that wasn't quite hers yet. 

"Nah. Wasn't sleeping anyway." 

She sniffled again and looked down at her hands firmly clasped on the sheets. 

"Wanna talk about it ?" Mike offered. 

"No." 

All she wanted was for the very memory of that dream to dissolve into nothingness. She lowered her head, gazing at the sheets between their legs, searching for something to say that would take her mind away from this kind of thoughts. That was when she noticed weird little pale spots all over Mike's thighs, that had always been hidden by clothes before. 

"What is that ?" She asked curiously. 

"Burn scars." 

"Um, yeah, I kinda figured that part out..." 

Sam didn't dare inquire further, because her friend looked a bit uncomfortable all of the sudden.

"I used to tell people it was from doing a barbecue in my underwear a few years back," he said anyway. 

She couldn't help but smile, because yeah, that totally sounded like something Mike could have done. But her smile quickly faltered as she caught the look in his eyes. 

"So what... what's the truth ?" 

He looked away again, fidgeting with the bed cover. 

"My father did them, with his lighter." 

His tone was so low that for the longest time she thought she had heard it wrong. She must have, anyway, because... what ?? 

"But you... your father.. he... ?" She stammered. 

"Was abusive ? Yes." 

The only thing she had know prior about the man was that he got a difficult divorce with Mike's mom when he was in high school, because of money issues or something like that. Above all, she had trouble believing it – no, not "believing", she knew he wasn't lying, of freaking course, yet she couldn't quite puzzle that new information. It just didn't fit what she knew of his personality, didn't fit the kinda immature jock, the silver-tongued class president he appeared to be. 

_Or did it... ?_

He was afraid of commitment, they all knew that, especially when it came to romance, and he hated staying alone at his home, and… She recalled that moment, on that fateful night, after Chris had knocked Josh out and they both returned to the lodge and Mike looked slightly _scared_ by their friend. As if-

"Only Josh knew that, ya know." 

Sam raised an eyebrow, a bit taken aback. She had never seen the two boys as very close, they were friends, of course, but they didn't have a lot of shared interests, not like Josh had with Chris for example. She was surprised it wasn't Em or Jess who got the confession, upon noticing the scars in the same way she did. 

"Once I ask him if I could sleep at his house," he explained, "because my parents had guests over, or... I don't remember which lie I exactly came up with, but it was alike. Josh was a bit suspicious, however, it would have stayed this way if he hadn't walked on me getting into my sleep clothes. I had bruises all over my chest and back. So... I had to explain, tell him why I had fled my home." 

She didn't know what to say and the silence stretched between them, until Mike moved around, getting back into a sleeping position. 

"We should get some rest," he said. 

Sam nodded, motioned to get back to her own bed and got stopped by his fingers curling around her arm. 

"Stay. Please." 

She froze for a second then lay back down next to her friend. He extended his arm above her head to switch off the bedside lamp. Slowly, her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she started to make out the shapes of her surroundings again. The moonlight passing through the window outlined the furniture delicately, all shiny surfaces reflecting glimpses of silver. Her gaze fell on Mike's lighter and her stomach clenched almost painfully. 

"I'm so sorry about... about what happened to you," she whispered to the shadows in front of her.

He hummed softly, then a few seconds later the weight on an arm settled over her frame. Sam could feel his chest rise and fall as he breathed before she fell asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry Mike, but I have had that headcannon for a while and I wanted to explore it a bit further. (Actually I think I read another fic exploring the same idea, and it was so well-written ! I wish I remember its title...à  
> And stay tuned for next chapter, you're finally gonna see some action ! (... If I don't get carried away again, that's it)


	6. Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for sticking with me ^_^  
>   
> /!/ Little note : after connecting my two brain cells, I realized there was something wrong with the weapons I gave them, so now only Mike has a flamethrower while Sam has a shotgun and a sleeping-gas-thrower, as she called it. /!/  
> (I updated the first chapters, so it's only for my early readers)

They were going up, once again, and Sam wasn't quite sure if she was hoping they would find today what – who – they were looking for, or not. Because finding Josh meant coming face to face with a wendigo, which was something every single fiber of her being wanted to avoid at all costs. And she didn't even want to think about the outcome of such an encounter, about the eventuality of their failure. Maybe they wouldn't be able to bring back their friend, after all. Maybe she'd die. Maybe Mike would.

She turned to face him, looking for reassurance, but he was gazing at the landscape around them. She felt something tug at her chest and suddenly realized that she couldn't see her life without him. Memories of last night flashed into her mind – her nightmare, his confession, their bodies against each other. And then was the awkward morning, when sleep had faded away and it had dawned on them.

She had never seen him like this, like... like someone she could love. All the other girls did, though, and it was understandable : he was intelligent and brave and hot and- 

_Ahem. Really, Sammy-girl ?_

Okay, maybe she had had the slightest interest in him, right from the beginning. But since they had known each other he had been dating that girl with red hair, then Emily, then Jess, not to mention Sam's best friend was crushing on him, and hard. She just couldn't do that to them and anyway, the feelings were easy to ignore back then. But yesterday, with the weight of his arm on her waist and his body warming hers, it was... something else. It wasn't love nevertheless, not yet at least. She was just happy that he was by her sides. 

"Uh... Mike ?" 

Her voice echoed in the little cabin and he hummed, not turning away from the window. 

"Is there a way to stop Buddy from putting its saliva all over my feet ?" 

She tried once again to push the wolf away, but it was way more than half her own weight and looked very thrilled by its current activity. It had been waiting for them in front of the cabin entrance, at the foot of the mountain, tongue hanging low and tail wagging all the more after it was gifted a piece of meat. 

"Are you sure you showered last night Sammy-girl ?" 

She scoffed and did the best she could to glare at him. 

"Just take your freaking pet away from m-" 

The jolt from the cabin coming to a stop cut her off. Immediately, the knot tightens in her throat. Sam tried to ignore it and stood up, opening the door in the same movement. Her boots dived in the fresh snow as she made her way across the woods, Buddy at her heels. 

"I'm already jealous, you know," Mike said after jumping next to her.

She stopped to look at him, her brows furrowed in confusion, prompting him to gesture at the pale wolf. 

"It used to follow me..." He explained. 

"Guess you aren't that special after all." 

"Or it recognized my sent on you and-" 

"Oh, shut up ! Besides, what did you do with my shoes for it to like them that much then ?" 

"I- Uh. Hum." 

"That's what I thought." 

She was hoping he couldn't see the blush that had crept up her cheeks – or maybe it could just be the cold air, right ? Not at all the fact that since last night she might have indeed his scent on her... Ugh, no, there was no way she was dwelling on it right now, because it was time for awareness and action and not getting their sorry asses killed. 

The more they approached the mines, the further away Buddy was behind them, to the point where she thought it had wandered off until she saw a flash of white fur in between the trees. It warmed her heart, that it was looking after them. After all, it knew the mountain better than they could ever. 

The wolf was still following them as they entered the remaining part of the sanatorium, their feet pushing away debris and their hands coming back black with soot when they brushed even so lightly against a wall or a piece of furniture. The old structure winced and creaked as the wind hollered through its holes. Sam shivered and looked back, searching for her friend's eyes. 

"You should take the lead," she said. 

Her voice echoed in the emptiness. 

"Why ? You're afraid, Sammy-girl ? Want your-" 

He was cut off by the sound of glass breaking, somewhere above their heads, and all trace of teasing was wiped out from his face, replaced by fear. 

"Shit. You... ?" 

The sound came from above too, and it was a voice, it was definitely a human voice, but echoed and deformed. _Or was it, really ?_

They stayed still for the longest time. 

"It... It must have been the wind." 

Mike nodded half-heartedly. 

"And I was only saying this, the lead…" She had to pause to stop her voice from shaking. "… because you have the flamethrower. Plus you know the way in the sanatorium." 

He looked at her before puzzling back what she was talking about. 

"Oh. Um. Last time I mostly got lost and chased around, so..." 

His words died somewhere in the air, strangled by dust and the smell of decaying wood. 

"Just don't touch weird moving things, okay ?" 

He tried to smile and one corner of his mouth did pulled back into his old smirk – only infinitely more tired. Sam couldn't help but glance at his mutilated hand, before nodding awkwardly : 

"Yeah. Yeah... Will remember that." 

The sanatorium seemed empty too, to her disappointment. She felt a tiny bit safer in man-made rooms than deep into the bowels of the earth, surrounded by cold hard stone echoing her footsteps for any creature to hear. Well, that feeling was a bit undermined though when she threw a piece of wood at a weird pile of stuff in front of a door and the ruthless jaws of a bear trap lacerated the air. 

"Yet it wasn't moving," she said flatly. 

She heard Mike muttered a swear word behind her, and they kept on walking. She tried to shake the feeling of being watched off, trying to convince herself it was only her paranoia speaking, but didn't quite manage. They weren't talking anymore, they were even trying to make their footsteps as quiet as possible. Her fingers felt cramped from clutching at the straps of her bag. 

Buddy was at their sides again when they reached the gaping hole that was the entry to that deadly maze they nearly lost their lives and sanity into. Sam felt a shiver run down her spine. A glance at her friend taught her that he was uncomfortable too. 

"Ladies first ?" 

"You would like that, uh ?" 

She took her shotgun off her belt, turned on her flashlight and peered at the tunnel in front of them, her hands clenched firmly on her weapon, finger on the trigger. No immediate danger was to be found, therefore she set foot in the darkness. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed !  
>   
> And I'd have a question : what do you think of my writing ?  
> It's already difficult for me to know if it's any good in French, but in English it's just impossible (because, you know, not my mother tongue and all). Is it clear ? Do the sentences feel too long, or too short ? And what about the "images" (like that one for example : "therefore she set foot in the darkness") ?


	7. Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally some action :P Enjoy !

Buddy was the first to sense that fourth presence around them. Ears flat against its crane, fur erecting on its back, fangs showing – it only took Mike a glimpse to know that something was wrong.

"Sam," he called between gritted teeth. 

The girl stopped in her tracks, and even if she wasn't facing him he noticed how tense she suddenly was, knuckles turning white on the handle of her shotgun. Mike put his free hand on the wolf as to calm it down, but its body was vibrating against his palm with a growl so low it wasn't even audible. They listened intently for any noise besides their breathing, but there were no footsteps, no shrieking, no tumbling little stones, so eventually, Mike very slowly turned around. He felt Sam's back against his as she watched over the other end of the tunnel they were stuck in. In front of him, though, that tunnel was empty. 

Until it wasn't. 

In one split second, they were deep into their nightmares again, with only a few meters separating them from the abomination that was crawling on the floor, bony limbs stretched out inhumanly, the top half of its body raised to the point its spine should have snapped in half. It was sniffing the air, mouth slightly open, just enough so its fangs were showing. Its milky eyes were gazing straight at them. 

And it wasn't Josh, but a fully-transformed wendigo, a monster over two-meters tall, with little to no remains of humanity if it wasn't for the inpatient green bracelet at its impossibly thin wrist. 

_Where the fuck is that thing coming from ?!_

Mike's hand tightened on Buddy's fur as to keep it from moving. He didn't want to see any of his friends die today, not like that, and one slight movement would be enough to display their presence, so they stayed still, even the wolf. The atmosphere was thick with their fear. 

The monster approached nonetheless, without diverting its attention for even a split second, and when it became clear that given the size of the tunnel it was going to bump into them, Mike raised his flamethrower and his finger tightened on the trigger. 

Fire came out roaring, and the whole scenery lighted up in a hellish way, scorching hot red and yellow splashing on the icy stone. Their shadows were growing, distorted and monstrous, drawn out by the flames – and then a loud shriek filled the bowel, higher and higher until it seemed like it filled their heads and the world itself, and when it should have stopped it rose even more, never-ending cry of agony. Yet the creature was still moving, despite the unbearable heat, its skin darkening and cracking as cooling lava, except it wasn't cooling down but burning up instead, until its elongated bones were exposed – for a while though its claws remained long scissors blades on the theater of shadows unfolding against the wall, and blood splashed against it. 

And then it was over. 

The wendigo spirit dissolved into the fire and it grew silent again. Mike's ears were still ringing and it took him a while to regain his bearings. When he finally did, he turned to Sam : 

"You're hurt ?" 

It was quite clear she was, as she was carefully peering through the ripped fabric of her coat, evaluating the wound under. 

"It's not deep," she reassured him. 

"Sure ? Not the right time to play the hero." 

"You can talk. And yes, I'm sure. I'm not going to bleed out from a scratch on my arm, and you won't have to save the damsel in distress I am not." 

He hadn't thought he could smile that shortly after the attack, but he did. 

"So you mean I won't get to carry you bridal style ?" 

She glared at him : 

"Don't even try." 

He shook his head and glanced around. 

"Where is Buddy ?" He wondered. 

"Uh... He must have been scared by the fire ?" 

Mike called its name, whistled, and waited, waited until it became clear that the wolf didn't want to come back. To be fair, he understood. Which sensible creature would stay around when they were flesh-eating monsters and devouring flames involved ? 

"Screw it. Only humans can be that stupid," he muttered. 

"What ?" 

"Nothing. I was thinking out loud." 

He glanced at the burnt corpse and recalled with a shiver the one that should have been dead after he blew up the sanatorium and wasn't, the one that Sam had had to get off him with a shovel. His gaze went back to his friend, who was tying a knot to the bandage around her arm to keep it in place. 

"Need any help ?" 

"No, it's good." She let her hand fall back to her sides. "I'm done. 

"

She picked up her shotgun, replaced her shoulder straps and then looked at him expectantly : 

"Should we go or... ?" 

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course." 

With that they left the remains behind them, both hoping it had been the last old wendigo to haunt the mountain. They weren't prepared to drove off an assault like the one in the lodge. Where did this one even come from ? It didn't look like it was one of the miners, nor - 

An image of its green hospital wristband flashed in his mind. The sanatorium ! It must have been an inpatient there when it was still human. Perhaps it was even the one he had seen turning into a monster on the videotape... ? 

"We should rehearse what we're going to do when we find Josh," Sam said after a while. “In our heads, since we should stay quiet." 

"Okay." 

Mike hadn't planned on doing this, but after all, it could stop his mind from wandering into unwanted places, so why not. He glanced at his friend, whose lips were moving in silence. 

_First, find him._

They were working on it. 

__

Second, put your mask on, (his fingers brushed against it, attached to the side of the flamethrower), and when you're both ready Sam will discharge the sleeping gas. Oh, and we'll need to be in an enclosed space so it's effective. The tunnels should do. 

__

Third, don't get hurt before the gas put him fully to sleep. Don't take off your mask yet. 

__

Fourth, do what the website and books said, as crazy as it may sound. Boil water. Make him swallow it

_._

Fifth, let's get the hell out of there. 

__

Apparently, according to what they had read on the subject, wendigos had a heart of glass, and when they were still partly human it could be melted without killing them. Therefore, that should cure Josh. 

_Fingers crossed. I don't want a damn wendigo in my car._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, that was totally a reference to the sequel, _The Inpatient_ ! Have you played it ?


	8. Josh

"So Josh must be in the mines," Sam said when the silence became unbearable. 

"Or we have missed him somewhere in-" 

"You really think so ?" 

"No." 

"Me neither." 

Therefore it was only a matter of hours until they ran into their lost friend now. It would very likely be today or tomorrow. That didn't seem more real to Sam though – her mind dragged its heels as soon as she tried to picture how it would go, unable to conceive that this, this desperate search into the mountain with Mike at her sides, this would end. 

"Today or tomorrow," she whispered to the stone between her feet. 

Would they be able to escape the mountain again ? The tunnel stayed quiet, the only answer being the almost frantic beating of her heart. She tried to ease down her breathing. 

__

In, block, out. 

__

Four, five, seven seconds. 

__

Repeat. 

__

It was Josh who had taught her that pattern when she had been freaking out about her finals in college. He had got it from Dr. Hill, his therapist. She didn't think she would ever have to use it to keep a panic attack at bay too, especially not in mines several feet under the surface, with her life at risk and a shotgun in her shaking hands. 

She was at that point in her thoughts when they arrived in a large cave, the ceiling expanding meters above their heads. They both stopped. In the very middle were laying clean, white bones. Human bones. 

"Do you think," she began, "that it's Josh who-"

"Sam ?" 

She felt her blood freeze in her veins. She was sure that had been someone saying her name this time, not a trick of her mind, but the voice was hoarse and raspy, and definitely not Mike's. 

"Oh fuck me." 

_That_ one was her still-fully-human friend's voice, and he sounded horrified. So she slowly tore her eyes away from the bones until they fell on the creature that was once Josh. 

He was taller than he should have been, but still within the human range, and way skinnier. She could see his protruding ribs under his teared-apart clothes, as well as his ashy skin, and only then did she gathered the courage to look at his face. One of his eyes had turned milky white, and for a second Sam wondered if his vision was half-human, half-wendigo – at least he had been able to recognize her. His cheek had been split open by his growing fangs and it was halfway beginning to heal, leaving trails of dried blood and inflamed scar tissue behind. 

"Josh ?" Mike tried. 

He turned his head to the direction of the sound and his eyes narrowed – she couldn't tell if it was from defiance or perplexity. His lips moved but no sound escaped his damaged lips, as if he had forgotten how to speak. 

"Do you understand what I say ?" 

Mike had taken a step towards their friend and Sam had to repress the urge to do the same. They thought he had died, they thought they would never see him again, yet there he was, not entirely human anymore, but alive, and for now that was all that mattered. They had come searching for him, they had found him. She wanted to cry. 

Behind the blur of those unexpected tears, she saw Josh hissing, his body curling up in a defensive position, as Mike tried to come even a bit closer. He had stopped dead in his tracks now, and now they were staring at each other like statues. 

Sam put her gas mask on. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her movement and motioned to put his on too. Josh's gaze was hesitating between the two of them, warry towards Mike and softer towards her – provided she could read his gaze despite his right eye lacking a pupil. Slowly, very slowly, as if he was a fully-transformed wendigo searching for her, she retreated to the tunnel they just came from. Mike looked at her, brows furrowed in confusion, then he understood. 

_Enclosed space. It's time to follow step two._

For the longest time, she thought Josh wasn't going to follow them, but he finally did, his movements barely human anymore as he was almost walking on all-fours. She took a few more steps until the cave disappeared from her view. A shiver ran down her spine when she realized she was turning her back to one end of the tunnel, the one which the monster with the green inpatient wristband had come from. However, for now, the danger was in front of her. She eyed Mike to make sure his mask was correctly positioned on his face, then she gripped firmly her weapon and pressed the trigger. 

Sleeping gas came out hissing, quickly filling the bowel with a pale greenish fog. She tried to push away the memory of the psycho the sound brought back, tried to focus on their current issue. She heard a sound akin to a shriek as it reached Josh, though she could only make out his frame, with the gas still so concentrated. She maintained the pressure on the trigger for a few seconds, just to make sure, and even after she kept her hands clenched around the pipe. Just in case. 

Josh wasn't moving though, despite still standing. Was it working ? He took an unsteady step, swaying on his feet. So it seemed to-

"Sam !!" 

She heard the warning as claws materialized inches away from her face. She screamed and leaped backward, efficiently avoiding being disfigured or, worse, slaughtered. How had he – _it ?_ – moved so fast ?! 

Half blinded by the gas and the sudden rush of adrenaline in her bloodstream, she took a moment to make sense to the figures in front of her. When she finally did, she rushed to help Mike, as she had done that night after he escaped the sanatorium – except now she didn't have a shovel and used the metal end of her gas-thrower instead. That, with perhaps the help of the gas, worked just as well and Josh stumbled away, groggy. 

_Is it over now ?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, they finally found Josh :P Are you still on board ? I hope so !  
> Btw, thanks a lot for your kudos and reviews and all, it really keeps me going !!


	9. Cure

Josh looked seconds away from collapsing on the ground, his human eye foggy and unfocused. Sam stayed on alert though, not diverting her attention from him and the deadly blades ending his fingers. She had had too many near-death experiences for one day, thank you very much. 

He had one final burst and Sam stepped back just in time. Mike didn't. His body crashed against the wall, three or four meters away, and he collapsed on the ground, unresponsive. 

"No !!" 

She wanted to run to him, make sure he was alright – or at least, you know, alive –, but Josh's eyes were now glued on her and she didn't dare to move. 

_It won't help if you get hurt too_ , said a part of her mind. 

_Coward_ , hissed the other. 

Josh finally, finally, fell in turn on the stony ground, and she watched his inanimate body for what felt like minutes until a groan of pain snapped her back to reality. 

"Mike !" 

In one split second, she was kneeling next to him, her green eyes filled with concern. 

"You okay ?" 

"I… oh, shit… Have... have been better." 

She helped him to his feet and then noticed his right hand pressed against his side. She motioned to push it away to get a better look but he turned away. 

"Just bruises." 

"Sure ?" 

She searched for his eyes behind the googles of the gas mask. 

"Mm-mh." He gently nudged her away from him. "Come on, let's take care of him." 

_So... step one and two : check._

Sam felt ridiculous, crouching on the cold floor in front of a tiny camping stove, trying with shaking hands to light a match. They had been wet by the snow outside and on top of that, it was the third one that was snuffed out by the air stream in the bowel. She threw her hands in the air out of exasperation :

"Crap !" 

"Want any help from the flamethrower ?" 

Unexpectedly this managed to make her smile. 

"Don't you think there would be a little scaling issue ?" 

The words had barely escaped her lips that she finally managed to get a flame. The gas made a little "woosh" sound when she lighted it up and she sat back on her heels. They both watched in silence the water slowly warming up, with a glance every few seconds at Josh's unconscious figure. The gas masks that they still wore – it wasn't the right time to be put to sleep too – made their expressions almost unreadable. Sam's fingers were tapping nervously against her thigh. 

_Come on, come on..._

As if it could make physics go quicker. 

After a couple of tense minutes, the sound of boiling water finally filled the tunnel and Sam exhaled in relief. 

"Ready ?" 

Mike nodded and struggled to his feet once again. A wince escaped his lips and she eyed him with worry. 

"What about I keep him pinned on the ground and you pour the water ?" she suggested. 

"If you want." 

_No more arguing... ?_ She furrowed her brows, then shrugged. For now, she needed to stay focused. 

She squatted down next to Josh, trying to swallow her uneasiness at being so close from his teeth and claws, then awkwardly motioned to almost sit on his chest, her hands placed firmly onto his wrists to keep him from moving. His skin was dreadfully cold against her touch. She hoped she could contain him if he woke up and tried to break free. 

"I'm going for it," Mike warned her. 

She tensed up, ready to struggle against Josh if needed. After all of this, she would only remember the sudden doubt she faced – _this will never work_ –, the smoke coming up and twisting in the air like an evanescent snake, and the skin under her palm slowly warming up, causing her heart to leap off in her chest – _it worked !_ –, Mike's eyes meeting hers, glistening with the same hope. 

Then Josh's body arched up and she nearly lost her balance. One of his arms slipped out of her loosening grip, she tried to get it back, or at least to push it away from her, but claws found their way nonetheless, tore through her clothes and skin, scraping her collarbone. Black dots rushed to cloud her vision and she barely heard her own scream behind the ringing in her ears. 

"Leave her alone !" 

In a blur, she saw Mike grab Josh's free arm and slam it back on the ground, then she gradually found back her bearings in the sudden silence. 

"Sam ? Sam ! You're okay ?" 

She couldn't get her eyes away from the drops of crimson blood – her blood – against Josh's ashy skin. Pain was extending its burning tentacles through her shoulder and neck, turning white-hot with each of her breaths. She wished with every fiber of her being that it would go away, or at least ease down, so she could think about something else. When it finally did, she lifted her head slightly. 

"Yes... yes, I'm fine," she answered in an uncertain voice. 

Her wetted clothes were sticking to her skin and she couldn't bear to look at the gashes, yet she was still breathing, her heart still beating, and when she tried to stand up again her legs supported her weight. 

"I'm sorry," Mike began, "I should have seen that you co-" 

She brushed off the apology, rather turning her attention back to Josh.

"Do you-" 

_... think it worked ?_

She hadn't even time to finish her sentence before a screech filled the air. For a split second, fear rushed through her veins – another wendigo ?! –, and then a monstrous face flew at her, almost entirely contained in its own scream, gaping mouth, blade-like teeth and blind, hollow eyes, burning up in ashes before them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What are your thoughts ? :D


	10. Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was planning to alternate between Mike's and Sam's POV, but apparently I like Sam way too much for that XD (And also because plot reasons... read to see lol) (is that how you tease ?)

When the wendigo spirit's cry died out, Sam's gaze snapped back to Josh's body at their feet, frantically searching for signs that he was human now, and alive, and that all would be okay. His eyes were closed, his skin still deathly pale and stretched over his bones, but his chest was gently going up and down as he breathed. 

"Let's get him out of these damn mines," Mike said. 

She couldn't agree more : 

"Yeah, let's get back to civilization." 

_And to people that are warm, smiling, and not trying to eat you. That could be nice._

She bent over, took one of Josh's arm – the one that didn't end with bloodied claws – and put it over her shoulders, then struggled to straighten again with his dead weight. Mike came to help, and they started to hobble towards the exit, their friend hanging behind them, his head rolling from one side to the other with each step they took. 

Sam had never been so glad to see snow in her entire life. 

A flash of white on her right caught her eye and she tensed up, before immediately relaxing. 

"Hey, Buddy," she greeted the wolf. "You were waiting for us ?" 

It approached, then stopped, staring at Josh. A low growl came from the back of his throat, but before Sam could try to reassure it, the sound stopped. It took a step closer, craned its neck and sniffed the air expectantly. He finally settled to tilt its head a bit, looking as puzzled as a wolf could to human eyes. 

"Yeah, me too," she sighed. 

When she went to rub her face with her free hand, her fingers crashed against the gas mask she was still wearing. She nearly ripped it off, now that she wouldn't have to wear it anymore. The motion made her wound ache but she did her best to ignore it. 

When they finally reached the cable station, she tried to get Buddy in but it adamantly refused to get in an enclosed space with Josh. She gave up. 

"Goodbye, then. We'll come back to see you soon, I swear. Right, Mike ?" 

As he didn't answer, she turned to him : 

"Mike ?" 

"Yeah... yeah, of course." 

After a last pat on the wolf's head, she entered the cabin and immediately put Josh against the window before dropping off into the bench seat next to him. Mike sat in front of them. 

"You know you can take off your mask now, right ?" she pointed out. "We won't need the sleeping gas anymore." 

He gazed at her for way too long before his hand rose up slowly to remove the mask. He looked livid, and his features were drawn in pain. Sam felt a pang in her chest at the sight, but for some reason, she didn't say anything – probably because she knew he would say that he was okay even if he wasn't. She was pretty sure he had at least one broken rib though. She looked away, gazing through the window at the whiteness beneath, when a slight motion against her leg made her come back to the cabin immediately. 

"Josh ?" she asked, hopeful. 

She searched his face for any sign that he was regaining consciousness. His eyes fluttered open for the briefest of moments, just enough so she could see that maybe his right eye was already gaining back its earthy color. His lips moved, forming silent words, and she wished she had learned how to read lips. She thought she recognized her name and "Where... ?" before he went back to his chemical-induced sleep. 

Sam kept her eyes on him, while her brain was already rushing forward, thinking about her friends, and finally allowing herself to think that yes, _yes_ , they could get a happy ending after all. Or, at least, as happy as it could be, given the circumstances. 

She was so deep in thought that the jolt of the cabin coming to a stop nearly made her jump. The way down had seemed shorter than usual to her – maybe because, for once, she wasn't torturing herself with answer-less questions and doubts and fears. 

"The car shouldn't be far by now," she said aloud to fill the silence. 

She got no answer and therefore settled to save her breath while half-carrying half-dragging Josh for the hundred or so remaining meters. 

They were barely ten meters away from the cabin when Mike tripped and collapsed. 

"Hey !" she protested when Josh's weight came to rest entirely on her shoulders. "You-" 

The words died on her lips when she noticed the splashes of red on the snow. 

"Oh shoot." 

She kneeled down, carefully laying Josh down, before turning to her injured friend. He was barely responsive anymore, and fear tightened around Sam's insides. 

"Please, no no no..." 

Her heart sank when she opened his coat, revealing the gaping wound at his side. There was blood all the way down to his pants, to the extent where she couldn't believe he even went that far before passing out. 

Later, she couldn't recall how she had managed to get the two unconscious boys in the car, nor by which miracle she didn't crash it, driving at breakneck speed on icy roads. She didn't know either how she had remembered the name of the female doctor who was in charge of them the first time – one of the very few people that knew about wendigos. 

What would stay clear on her mind, though, was the face the receptionist made when she barged into the ER, breathless and panicked, with blood all over her clothes, saying that they were two more injured persons outside and that she needed to speak to Dr. Hansen. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You thought all would have gone well, uh ? You fool... :P


	11. Hospital

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I'm late ! Life has gotten in the way...  
> Anyway, here is the second to last chapter (at least that's what I've planned), so enjoy !  
> Oh, and TW : hospital I guess ? (dunno if it's needed, but better safe than sorry !) (that goes for the next chapters too)

He woke up to a faint hospital smell and the beeping of a nearby heart monitor. For a while he just lay there, unable to open his eyes, his mind trying to assemble his last memories in a way that would make sense. 

White. Needles. A blurry face he didn't recognize. Muffled shouts, a drip filled with blood, neon. And before there was the vibrations and rearing of... the car ? But he wasn't driving. Sam's panicked voice, her pleas for him to stay with her. Where was _she_ right now ? Only at that moment did he notice the hand that was placed upon his, warm and comforting. Was it hers ? He wanted to open his eyes, to see her, make sure she was okay, but the memories keep on flowing, demanding his attention.

Red against the snow, the damn mines, a wendigo's milky eyes and screeches and... No. Josh's.

His breathing started to quicken and the hand by his side tighten its grip a bit, just enough to remind him of its presence. 

"Mike ?" 

The voice sounded distant, but he'd have recognized everywhere. He tried to speak her name, to open his eyes, somehow failed at both because his throat was so dry and the lights in the room were blinding. But slowly, it became bearable, just enough so he could get a grasp on his surroundings. 

He was definitely in a hospital bed, which wasn't too surprising given the state he last remembered being in. He let his head roll to the side so he could face Sam. She had leaned over, her second hand coming to cover his. The light turned her hair golden. Finally, her face came into focus, her sparkling green eyes searching for his, a very small smile playing on her lips. 

The thought escaped his hazy brain before he has the time to fully process it, going straight to his tongue : 

"You're beautiful." 

His voice was barely above a whisper, yet she was close enough to hear it perfectly. Her brows shot up in surprise as she tried to hold back a chuckle. 

"Well, hello to you too Mike." 

He furrowed his brows, struggling to make sense of what just happened. Then it dwelled on him.

"Did I just… say that... out loud ?" 

Sam laughed – and if that meant hearing that lovely sound, he had no problem with embarrassing himself a bit. Plus, those words were true. 

"What did he say ?" asked a third voice from the other side of the room. 

He couldn't find it in him to look up. Sam did, though. 

"Nothing," she answered. "Nothing important at least. "

He frowned at that, yet kept his mouth shut. He was definitely not carrying on that conversation with another person in the room. Who was she – it was a feminine voice – by the way ? Ashley, maybe ? What was she doing there ? 

Sam's thumb was now tracing soothing circles on the back of his hand and he was glad she hadn't let it go. She came back to him : 

"How do you feel ?" 

He mumbled something, tried to straighten himself up. Pain immediately shot through his side, bad enough to make his vision blackened, and he gasped. 

"Wow, easy, easy. You're seriously injured." 

_Yeah, no shit._

It felt like he had been impaled. Which, if he recalled correctly, wasn't that far from the truth. The picture of a broken steel beam, wet with blood and protruding from the wall Josh flung him against, flashed in his mind. He closed his eyes in an attempt to unsee it. 

"The doctors said there shouldn't be any complications though," Sam added, "at least if you stay still while it heals." 

She made a point of highlighting the word "still" with a glance. That made him chuckle. 

"Yes, mom." 

She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling too.

"They also said that you were very lucky not to be dead, or actively dying." There was suddenly a seriousness in her voice that made his heart clench. "So please – don't do anything stupid." 

So, he nearly died. _She nearly lost him._ Mike looked away, unwilling to see her expression, and that was when he finally noticed Ashley. She had stood up from her chair and was now at the foot of his bed, her hands resting on the metallic side rail. 

"Hey." 

She tried to smile, didn't quite managed. 

"Hey," she called back. 

"Why are you here ?" 

It didn't sound that harsh in his head. She didn't seem to mind, though. 

"Sam called us." 

"... Us ?" 

"Jess and Chris are in the hotel, probably still sleeping. Matt and Em are on their way." 

"Sleeping ? And... what ?" 

Too much information. His brain wasn't following. 

"It's eight in the morning", Sam explained. "I brought you in yesterday at about six pm. You were out of it for the night." 

"I just arrived," Ashley added, "and I thought I could come in to see Sam... and you, of course, but you were still unconscious, so…" 

He turned to her, raising an eyebrow : 

"You slept here, Sam ?" 

"In that armchair, precisely. I was probably supposed to stay in my room, but I fell asleep here and no one came to wake me up, so…"

She tried to shrug and gave up with a flinch. The white of the bandages, exposed by the collar of her top, caught his eye and he felt a pang in his chest that had nothing to do with his own injuries. 

So she stayed here all night... with him ? _For_ him ? Mike shook his head, trying to push away the thought – and to bite back a wince, because for god's sake even his head hurt. 

"And..." 

He trailed off. That particular question was swirling around in his mind almost since he woke up, and now it got caught up in his throat, refusing to leave. 

He took a shaky breath in, then : 

"And Josh ?" 

He couldn't bear to elaborate – there was no need anyway. He could only mean one thing. There was a bit of silence before Sam sat back with a sigh. 

"We don't know. He's alive but unresponsive. He’s kept apart from the rest of the hospital since his... condition is, uh, classified. His room is guarded, even us can't visit him for now." 

"Do they think he will... uh... make it ?" 

"Physically, they think so. He has slight burns around and in his mouth, but somehow nothing inside, so he should be okay after some time." 

She sounded like she was trying to convince herself that all would be good, and he wondered what she wasn’t telling him. 

"But he is still part wendigo," Ashley blurted out, as an echo to his thoughts. 

Her gaze was locked on her hands, which were clasped on the metal tray to keep them from shaking. She looked close to tears. 

"Ah." 

Mike felt tired all of a sudden and with his body fully coming back to its senses, the pain in his side was becoming hard to ignore. Maybe it didn’t work, maybe they did all that for nothing. 

"He still has sharp teeth and all, that’s true," Sam said, eyeing Ash with a hardened expression on her pretty face, "but perhaps that’s normal. I mean, we didn’t expect him to revert to normal all at once, did we ?" 

_I did_ , he thought – but he didn’t dare say that out loud, not when Sam had such fragile hope glistening in her green eyes. 

"We’ll only know when he wakes up because after all, we don’t care what he looks like, if he’s still… Josh. Human Josh, I mean, I-"

Words died on her lips. Mike reached for her hand once again when she sat back in the armchair.

"It will be okay Sam." 

She nodded slightly and stared at their intertwined fingers in silence, barely even responding when Ashley excused herself out of the room. 


	12. Alright

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know that I'm late (uni semester started, so...), BUT there is a two-part epilogue coming after it !  
> ( ! Note ! : to those who have read this chapter before September 23th 2019, I have added two bits : one before the doctor came in, and one at the very end !)

_A few days later_

  


"Josh is okay." 

The nurse's voice was still echoing inside the small hospital room even though his white uniform had disappeared through the door a few minutes ago. Sam unfolded her legs, toying with the idea of running straight to her friend's room without waiting for the nurse to come back with her blood test results. Instead, she absent-mindedly began to scratch at the bandages on her neck. Her naked feet were restlessly tapping against the cold tiles of the floor, eager to lead her through the empty corridors. She sighed, settled to stare at the stainless wall in front of her as she had been for the past half-an-hour. 

"He's okay," she whispered to herself as to make the news more real. "He has woken up and you would be able to see him. Soon. Very soon…"

_Jeez, a damn blood test shouldn't take so long, should it ?_

She took her phone from her jumper pocket in the hope of diverting her attention. That didn't quite work, given the first thing she picked up was an alert for a text message from "that asshole …" – the full contact name being "that asshole who pushed me into a river (once) (and she got revenge)", result of a night of drinking at the lodge, but it was too long to fit. She had continued to text Josh ever since that fateful night, updating the shadow of her friend about what had been happening to the group. She couldn't really explain it, however, it made her feel better and it was all that mattered.

Until Josh answered.

_How has he even got his phone back ??_

"> Hey Sam. 

> Were you planning to talk to a ghost, or have you thought that it was possible to type with claws ?

> I think it's not, by the way. Possible, I mean. Someone, a nurse probably, kinda trimmed mine and yet it's still one hell of a struggle. 

> I miss you." 

The door creaking made her jump to her feet, heart picking up in her chest. The woman coming in gave her a puzzled look behind her glasses and tired eyes. 

"You don't need to worry," the doctor began, "I-" 

"I'm not worried. Is everything okay ?" 

"Well, your white cells count is still very low, so you should remain on the antibiotics we gave you, and-"

Sam interrupted her again : 

"Okay, sure, I will. Can I go now ?" 

"I-"

"Do you need to run another test ?" 

"No, you are free to go, however, you should avoid excessive effort…"

Sam left her and her warnings behind, barely stopping by the door to grab her shoes and vest. She was struggling to put one of said-shoes on her naked feet while walking, trying her best to ignore the jolt of pain the motion triggered in her shoulder, when the doctor's hand stopped her in her tracks :

"Hey ! Why are you in such a hurry ? Is something wrong ?" 

The woman looked genuinely concerned, so Sam couldn't really mind the interruption. 

"No, everything is alright… Everything…"

She felt a smile blossomed on her face as the words escaped her lips. 

"My friend is an inpatient here too," she explained, seeing the confusion radiating from the doctor, "and I just learned I'm allowed to visit him." 

"Oh. That's… that's great ! I'm happy for both of you." 

The woman's smile mirrored her for a split instant before she let go of Sam's arm. 

One minute later, she crashed in Mike's room, breathless – the lift was too slow to come, so she had taken the stairs – and excited : 

"Did you- ?!" 

"I guess you heard the news too," he teased with a smile. 

"Yeah, I-"

She paused, eventually noticing that he was sitting at the very edge of his hospital bed, one crutch in hand while the other was laying on the floor, obviously knocked down. She frowned. 

"Uh… What do you think you're doing, Mike ?" 

"Same thing as you." 

"But I… I'm not supposed to be bed-ridden," she argued, highlighted the pronoun. 

"Fuck that." He looked at her expectantly. "Would you be nice enough to help me ?" 

She sighed, ran a hand through her blonde locks, and gave up : 

"Of course." 

"You were easy to persuade." 

He actually had the nerve to look surprised as she offered him her arm as a support. 

"I figured you are going to go anyway," she grumbled, "so at least I could keep an eye on you." 

"That's sweet, mo-"

His words were cut off when he straightened up and a yelp of pain escaped his lips instead. 

"Ow, shit. Shit, shit, shit." 

"You sure you're okay ?" 

"Um-hum. Will do." 

Sam stared at him for a few seconds, wondering if that wasn't a terrible idea, but-

"That can't be as worse as a plan," Mike pointed out, "as going back to that damn mountain." 

Sam couldn't help but laugh. 

"You know what ? That was exactly what I was thinking !" 

"And we made it through." 

She nodded pensively. 

"Yeah… I still can't believe we did, though," she said slowly. "Like… we survived that freaking mountain, twice, and despite all odds, we're all going to be together again. Not like before, of course, but… at least we got no one to weep." 

"Thanks." 

She glanced at him, her brows furrowed : 

"What was that for ?" 

"Talking me in that crazy rescue mission. I couldn't get over the fact that I left Josh behind, at the underground lake, but… I would have never go back on my own. You brought the whole group back together." 

"I also almost got us both killed." 

"Yet we didn't," he said. "We are too good of a team." 

With that, he kissed her on the cheek. 

She was glad he looked away the just after because her fair skin betrayed her and she had turned a nice shade of pink. However, if the hospital lightning wasn't playing a trick on her eyes, Mike had blushed a little too. She searched for his hand with her free one, grabbed it and gave it a gentle squeeze. He didn't take it back even when she let her thumb run over the part where his fingers used to be. For a while, they just breathed each other in, their body heat intermingling as he leaned slightly on her. Sam wanted to stay like this forever, but also…

"Now, let's go, shall we ?" She nudged him gently. "We have a wendigo to say hello to." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost the end... I'd love to hear your thoughts !


	13. Epilogue (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I'm two days late again... I've gotta stop making promises to you, I never follow my own word XD  
> ( **! Note !** If you have read the previous chapter before September 23th 2019, you missed two bits I added after posting it : one just before the doctor comes in Sam's room, and one at the very end...)

**Josh :**

The silence was only broken by his breathing and the occasional beeping of the machine next to him. For a while, just after he had woken up, there had been a swarm of doctors and nurses around his bed, looking at his vitals and asking him a ton of questions he tried his best to answer despite his foggy mind and the various emotions flooding in.

Confusion. _What the hell is happening ? And- What ?_

A bit of joy. _I'm alive. I'm fucking alive._

Bouts of anger. _Leave me alone !_

Sadness. 

Relief. _I'm not a monster. I'm saved._

Fear. _Or am I, really ?_

Thankfulness. _Sam, Mike… Where are you ?_

Worry. _I hope I didn't hurt you._

_Guilt._

__

The last one was overwhelming. He hoped one of his friends would appear at the door and at the same time he dreaded to see their oh-too-familiar faces. They probably all hated him now. 

____

Then why the hell did they come back for ? 

____

I don't know ! I don't… know…

____

Josh shook his head as to make it quiet again. He shifted in his bed, barely holding back a wince, and grabbed his phone on the bedside table. Sam had left numerous texts ever since they escaped the lodge, a few weeks ago. He had cried discovering them. 

__

There was a new one. 

__

> I heard you woke up ! We're coming. 

__

His lips pulled up into a smile – he had almost forgotten how that felt. 

_  
_

**Emily :**

__

She was the first to come into Josh's room, but she tried with everything she had to act like she didn't care. She was standing in a corner, her arms crossed, one of her heels nervously tapping down the tiled floor. A Gucci scarf was wrapped tightly around her neck to hide the bite mark on her pale skin.

__

"I'm glad you are here," she began, "so I can un-alive you for everything you've done." 

__

"Em…"

__

"Don't 'Em' me." 

__

"I'm sorry." 

__

"I- Hum. At least I hope your rich-ass parents would pay for plastic surgery because I'm not going to be seen with someone with that face." 

__

"Would that mean you'll still hang out with me ?" 

__

"Hrm, yeah", she admitted with a frown. "I guess." 

__

After that they weren't alone in the room anymore, so Em retreated in her haughty silence, if not for a few snarky remarks like only she could do. 

_  
_

**Ashley :**

__

As soon as she entered the room, she started to cry – or maybe had she been already in tears in the corridor. Her red eyes and puffy face would confirm that second theory. She walked to their friend's bed, yet stayed just out of reach. Her hand extended to the white mattress but she left it there, unable to reach further. 

__

"You're back," she stated flatly. 

__

"Seems like it. More or less." 

__

"I- I don't know what to say. I think it's good to see you again, but I'm not even sure. I don't know if I can forgive you. And you scare me. Should I ?" 

__

"What ?" 

__

"Be afraid." 

__

"… I promise I'm not gonna attack you." 

__

"I promise I won't stab you with scissors again." 

__

With that, weirdly, Ashley smiled. She grabbed Josh's hand, squeezed it for a split second then retreated against the wall. But maybe she wasn't that afraid anymore. 

_  
_

**Chris :**

__

Of course, he was coming right behind Ashley – for a few minutes, he had waited by the door to give her a bit of privacy, then he moved forward. He still had a slight limp, but at least he didn't need crutches anymore. He was the first one to touch Josh right away, trying to give him a hug between the bed frame and the bandages and the IV lines. 

__

"First of all," he declared with a bit of solemnity, "I missed you." 

__

"I would say the same, Cochise, but I… I don't really remember what happened." 

__

"What ?!" 

__

The cry came from the two girls. For a second, words were mixing up in the air, bits of surprise and the events in the lodge, and-

__

"Hey ! I was talking about the time I spent alone, not the part with you. That, I remember. All too well. … I guess I should state again that I'm sorry." 

__

"Are you ?" asked Chris. "Really ?" 

__

"Yes. I still haven't sorted out everything, but I think I always knew that it was wrong, somehow."

__

"You're going to have to see a therapist seriously again." 

__

"I know." 

__

"And you promised me a game of Settlers of Catan back at the mountain. I'm pretty sure you're also going to follow your word and get your ass beaten one more time." 

__

Josh laughed. It was weird and raspy and it exposed his blade-like teeth more than it should – till then the most of it had been hidden by the bandages on his teared-up cheek –, but it was a laugh nonetheless and it made Chris grinned. He sat down to the nearby chair, staying close to his best friend's bed. 

_  
_

**Sam :**

__

She arrived with her arm around Mike’s back as he struggled with his crutches, but he stayed at the door and let her come closer on her own, just as Chris had done with Ashley. She came right next to him while a smile quickly spread across her pretty features. 

__

"Hey, Josh. I missed you too, you know," she said, continuing their text conversation like nothing happened. 

__

She didn't pay attention to Chris's interrogative look, too focused on her newly-found friend. She was barely acknowledging his paler eye – the right, the one that had been milky – and the bandages hiding his mangled cheek. She was just so glad she could finally talk to him again. 

__

"How had you got your phone back by the way ?" 

__

"I didn't." He rose up his hand, holding a white device she hadn't seen before. "New one. Parents' treat, so I can call them since they won't be able to come right away." 

__

The hurt shivering behind his words made Sam's heart sank. 

__

"But you are all here," he continued, "so it didn't matter. Or, well, I hope you are all going to come in at least. Since, you know, everyone in his town. But maybe they, uh, came only for Mike and you, I don't know, really. They- They would have been right, by the way, because-"

__

She put her hand over his, effectively making him quiet. 

__

"I don't know about the others but personally I came back here for you, so I'm not going anywhere until a nurse kicks me out." 

__

"Oh, Sam…"

__

"What did you believe, big guy ? That scaring me in my bath would be enough to get rid of me forever ? Nah. Try again." She paused for a heartbeat. "Or, on second thought, don't. I would appreciate it." 

__

He let out a sound that was half a laugh and half something else. 

__

"Sam." His fingers curled around her wrist. "Thank you, for coming back… Thank you so much. You saved me, not only from death but from…"

__

He didn't finish his sentence and Sam's eyes fell on the hand around her forearm, with ashy skin and weirdly-clipped claws. Somehow, she didn't pull back. 

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm nearly done writing the second part of this epilogue, so I should post it in the coming days !! (Yeah, that's a promise, but not a very precise one, so I'm still following my resolution... right ? ^^)  
> Also, yes, that epilogue format is totally inspired by the credits at the end of the game !  
>   
> By the way, let me know what you think about this chapter ! I have gotten used to writing Mike and Sam (even though I'm still not 100% sure I got them right), but Em, Ash, Chris, and Josh, oh, especially Josh... That was definitly a challenge o.O (And also an excuse to play the game a fourth time, with a friend - I had the controller but she made the choices, and somehow we managed to get everyone killed except for Sam... Partly because I suck at QTEs, partly because we made Sam run for the switch too soon at the end - that particular ending was so horrifying ToT)


	14. Epilogue (part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the last chapter... I feel kinda weird about saying that, after writing this fic all summer ! So, enjoy ?

**Mike :**

Josh's gaze went up as Sam stayed quiet and fell on Mike, who was leaning against the door frame, the shadow of a smirk on his lips. When he noticed that his friend's attention had shifted, he took a few steps closer, slightly limping to avoid putting weight on his injured side, and his hands came to rest on the metal side rail at the foot of the bed.

"It's good to see you, mate." 

"Hey, Mike." 

"Sorry I hit you the last two times I saw you that night. Never got to apologize either after I realized you had no part in it… For Jess, I mean." 

"Yeah…" Josh let out a humorless laugh. " _That_ one wasn't on me. And you look like I returned the favor anyway." 

Mike's eyes shifted to the bandages on his torso before coming back to Josh. 

"Guess you could say that, indeed," he said with an unsteady smile. "Oh and, by the way, when we were searching for you, we find what you had prepared for Jess and I. Not cool, mate. I would be glad we escaped that if the alternative hadn't been so… hungry." 

"Not helping, Mike," Sam protested. 

"Let him." One of Josh's hands rose to rub his eyes but the IV line stopped him. "You both risked your lives for me, I think you earned the right to call me every name you can think of." 

"We earned the right to see you again, you mean, that's all I wanted." Mike leaned over, as far as his injury would allow him to. "Partly so I could apologize for… for what happened a year ago, for Han- Hannah, and for Beth too, and… and not seeing how bad you were doing after that. And…" He took a shaky breath. "… partly because you are my friend and I missed you." 

"Are you crying ? _Mike_ ?" 

"… No." 

He looked away, blinking hard to keep the tears at bay. Josh, as for him, didn't even try. 

  


**Jess :**

No one heard when she walked through the door, but Josh saw her moving out of the corner of his eye and a moment later they were all looking at her. Ashley smiled. The day before, Jess had adamantly refused to come visit him, saying – screaming – he wasn't even her friend, but Mike's, and she could never forgive him. Yet, here she was, fingers nervously playing with the end of her braids. Her uncharacteristic high-collar shirt hid the scars on her chest. 

"I wasn't going to come," she said bluntly. 

"So why are you here ?" 

"I felt alone in the hotel. Everyone’s here." 

"Yeah…"

"And… And I'm sorry. I sometimes feel like that was I that started it all. With the… the prank, last year, I mean. Hannah. I'm sorry. So, I guess we're just even now. Or maybe not, not even, because I'm sure you had something nasty in mind for me and Mike, but you didn't have the chance to play it out. Hannah got her revenge first." 

"That thing wasn't my sister." 

"I know. But it came for me first nonetheless. And it didn't kill you, it didn't kill Sam, it didn't attack Mike either. I guess it still had some kind of memories." 

"… It's even sadder. I don't remember being a… a wendigo, so I hope Hannah wasn't aware of what had possessed her either." 

"I'm sorry," repeated Jess. 

They stared at each other for the longest time. The blonde was shifting her weight nervously from one foot to another. That had been the first time ever the others had seen her apologizing – she hadn't even after the twins disappeared. Nothing was hardly ever her fault, she either took pride in what she had done or just acted like it never happened. But now her smile had faded, her laugh was nowhere to be heard, and she acknowledged her part in the disaster that were these last trips to Blackwood Mountain. Maybe it would allow her to move on. 

She walked out through the door without adding a single word. 

  


**Matt :**

He came last, clutching in his hand a paper bag stamped with the logo of a fast-food chain, as a lifeline connecting him to normality – to a world where no one would have to resort to human flesh to survive. His eyes darted to Emily and he seemed a bit surprised that she was still there. He kinda assumed she would have tried to kill someone by now. 

"I almost ran into Jessica coming here, I tried to chat and she didn't answer. What's the matter with her ?" 

"I think she needs more time to process everything," said Josh after a moment of silence. 

"That you tried to kill us, you mean ?" 

"Technically, I wasn't. It was all just a show." 

"That you filmed." 

"… Yes." 

"And how did it turn out ? Are you gonna be famous ?" 

"Did Emily try to teach you sarcasm ?" Josh fired back, suddenly annoyed. "At least from what I learned having footage of this shit made you avoid ending in a psychiatric yard like I'm going to." 

"Yeah. Have fun there." 

"Matt !" Sam protested. "You can't say that !" 

"I can, and I will ! I don't care if he didn't want to actually kill us, he nearly did anyway !" 

"The wendigos weren't-"

"-his fault, I know ! Except that he got us all separated, lost in the woods, scared shitless about some maniac chasing us when we should have focus on the real monsters, and he cut off our only way out, and-" 

"Matt, for fuck's sake man, just stop," Mike stepped in. 

"Do you think that monster would have caught Jess if you weren't in that damn cabin in the middle of its hunting ground, uh ?" 

"The whole damn mountain was its hunting ground, remember ?" 

"Enough !!" 

Sam's outcry made everyone stop. 

"Get out, Matt. I don't know if you're right to be angry or not, but either way now is not the time. Please." 

Emily walked up to him and took his arm. 

"Come on. Let the Care Bears have their pity party." 

"Em-"

"Honestly, I'm not even that pissed off at Josh. He mostly just tried to steal my bag, as far as I'm concerned. Unless a certain someone that tried to fucking shoot me." 

"Em-" Mike tried in turn. 

"Bye, losers !"

She exited the room with a wave of her arm, dragging behind her a still-fuming Matt. The sound of her heels against the tiled floor echoed in the sudden silence. 

"Yeah…" Sam replaced a strand of hair between her ear and leaned against the bedside table. "Well, we got that out of the way." 

"I can't help but feel like he's right," Josh said quietly. 

"We all did things we regret back then on the mountain. Not on the same scale, but… I mean, you were kinda right." She raised a hand to stop him from interrupting her. "We did pull a prank on Hannah and she won't ever have the chance to talk about it, to decide if she forgives us or not. We do. And as for me… Honestly, I'm not sure I can forgive you. But I can't live without you, that’s for sure, nor any of us here, I think." 

Her gaze lingered for a few seconds on each person in the room. They were all looking at her, eyes shiny with tears. 

A slow applause made her turn abruptly. 

"Great speech, mom. You are really bringing our weird, dysfunctional family together, congrats." 

"Mike !" She hissed. "I swear, if that weren't for that injury, I will freaking punch you !" 

He caught her hand easily as she mimicked a blow at his face and didn't let it go, intertwining his fingers with hers. Laughter broke the tension in the room, quickly followed by tears – but they were tears of relief, this time. 

_Maybe… maybe the second time around, we can finally get our happy ending._

  


**End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I posted this, I re-read and corrected and updated all the previous chapters... That means I'm officially 100% done with that fic ! And I must admit I feel a bit blue now, but also proud !  
>   
> I'd like to thank you for sticking with me through this whole fic, kudos and reviews are what kept me going !! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and... may I hear your thoughts one last time ? ❤ Just so I know you got to the end !  
> And if this get 40 reviews (in total), I will begin another Until Dawn fanfic... What would you say about that ? :P  
>   
> EDIT (April 2020) (because I apparently don't know how to shut up) :  
> First, the beginning of that notes made me laugh, oh sweet past-me, you had no idea... This is the third time I go back to this fic to edit / better it xD  
> ALSO ! Since you got this fic well past the 40 reviews, and since my love for this game is renewed after I played it yet again, I'm starting a new Until Dawn fic... probably kind of a sequel of this one. Stay tunned !


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